Corruption Case Against Former CIA Commissioner Rajnarayan Pathak Listed as 'Ineligible to Hear'

The corruption case against former Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Commissioner Rajnarayan Pathak has been placed on the 'ineligible to hear' list. The hearing for the corruption case against Pathak was scheduled before the division bench of Supreme Court Justices Nahakul Subedi and Balkrishna Dhakal. The case was moved to the ineligible list because Justice Subedi had previously issued an order in a corruption case involving Pathak, which was linked to the current matter.

Pathak resigned under the threat of impeachment after it was revealed that he accepted a bribe of 7.8 million rupees to settle irregularities within the Nepal Engineering College. Audio and video recordings of the conversation and discussion regarding the bribe transaction were later made public by the group that invested the money after the work was not done despite the bribe being paid.

Although the bribe deal for settling the college irregularities was set at 16 million rupees, Nyaupane initially paid 7.8 million rupees in two installments as an advance. The group responsible for delivering the amount to Pathak later presented the audio evidence to the CIAA.

The CIAA filed a case against the then-Commissioner Pathak and Lambodar Nyaupane, Chairman of the Nepal Engineering College, in the Special Court on charges of corruption for accepting a bribe of 7.8 million rupees. The Special Court sentenced both individuals to 3 years in prison each and fined them 3.9 million rupees each.

Commissioner Pathak received an additional 3 months of imprisonment. Since the Special Court convicted them of attempted corruption and imposed only half the sentence, the CIAA appealed to the Supreme Court for a review.